Parents concerned over Wi-Fi health risks

Hundreds of parents across the country are speaking out against what they fear may be an invisible threat to their childrens’ well being: Wi-Fi in schools.

RELATED 16:9 The Bigger Picture website

McKenzy Honing, 16, says school makes him feel sick. The Grade 11 British Columbia high school student came home complaining of headaches and heart palpitations. “It felt like my heart was skipping beats,” he said. But on the weekends? “I’d start to get better. And by Sunday I’d start to feel normal.”

Just a typical kid trying to get out of class? Maybe. But McKenzy’s mom, Lynda Honing, doesn’t think so. She thinks her son’s health is at risk. And she’s just one of hundreds of concerned parents across the country speaking out against what they fear may be an invisible threat to their childrens’ well being: Wi-Fi in schools.

Global News’ current affairs program, 16:9 The Bigger Picture, wanted to find out just how much radiation laptops and routers in schools could be emitting. So 16:9 asked Kavinder Dhillon, president of LabTest Certification Inc., to test radiation levels in a simulated typical, active wireless classroom. The result? A reading of 113.8 microwatts – well below Health Canada’s recommended threshold of 10 million microwatts.

Just outside the classroom in the hallway, the radiation reading near the router hit 2600 microwatts. That’s 20 times higher than inside the classroom. While it was still low by Health Canada standards, Dhillon expressed some discomfort. “The people who are in the industry, who are testing this,” he told 16:9, “they feel this is a high level. This is very high.”

16:9 investigated further with another test to see how a person might react in proximity to radiation levels Health Canada considers safe. Professor Magda Havas, a Trent University environmental scientist, used a wireless computer and a router on an adult male subject who calls himself “electrically sensitive.” In a blind test, Prof. Havas exposed him to microwave radiation at levels similar to those in an average wireless classroom. She found the closer the router, the faster the subject’s heart rate. Although the levels she used in the test were under Health Canada’s limit, Prof. Havas has a theory that may explain her findings. “Some percentage of the population is reacting to this microwave radiation,” she said.

But could trading chalkboards for laptops make kids sick? 16:9 asked the Wi-Fi Alliance to comment on wireless products’ possible health effects. The Alliance responded with a written statement. “Wi-Fi technology meets all national and international safety requirements,” it said, “and emits signals that are typically hundreds to thousands of times below the safety limits.”

Health Canada says parents shouldn’t worry. In fact, Beth Pieterson, a Health Canada representative told 16:9 the amount of radiation children experience in a typical wireless classroom is in no way responsible for the headaches, nausea and hyperactivity some kids say they experience. “There’s no scientific evidence,” said Pieterson, “that those kinds of effects are caused by the energy limits the kids are exposed to by Wi-Fi.”

But Dr. David Carpenter from Albany, New York, a world-renowned expert in environmental toxins, told 16:9 he disagrees with Health Canada’s analysis. “The weight of the evidence demonstrates clearly that exposure to RF radiation causes disease,” he said, adding, “the evidence is strongest for cancer.”

While Canada races to go wireless, in other parts of the world, Wi-Fi has worn out its welcome. Herouville-St.Clair, France is the first municipality in the world to remove W-Fi from schools and public buildings. Mayor Rudolphe Thomas told 16:9 he’s not willing to gamble with childrens’ health. In other European countries, wireless technology is still prevalent, but it’s increasingly treated with caution. In Germany, Wi-Fi is still in use but the government recommended children limit their exposure. And in Britain, some public schools independently decided to remove it altogether.

Here, the current precautions are few and the Wi-Fi hotspots are plenty. Parents like Honing are concerned we’re sacrificing our kids’ health for convenience. She says she doesn’t want to wait. She doesn’t want her son to be an experiment. Dr. Carpenter shares her concern. He told 16:9 it’s time for Canada to stop turning a blind eye to Wi-Fi’s possible risks. “You don’t want to wait until you can count the bodies before you tell the public that there is a serious potential of harm,” he said. “And with regard to the issue of Wi-Fi in schools, this is exactly where we are.” CW Media Inc.

Wi-Fi alert: School officials may be personally liable for exposing children to wireless radiation

(NaturalHealth365) School districts, school boards and school medical health officers in Canada have been notified that Lloyd’s of London has now excluded any liability coverage for injuries, “directly or indirectly arising out of, resulting from or contributed to by electromagnetic fields, electromagnetic radiation, electromagnetism, radio waves or noise.” This includes the radio frequency radiation emitting from Wi-Fi and other wireless devices in schools.

On February 18, 2015, the UK agent for Lloyd’s stated, “the Electromagnetic Fields Exclusion (Exclusion 32) is a General Insurance Exclusion and is applied across the market as standard. The purpose of the exclusion is to exclude cover for illnesses caused by continuous long-term non-ionizing radiation exposure i.e. through mobile phone usage.”

Tyler is one of many children who is suffering from the mandatory exposure to the wireless technology that has been installed in our schools. Parents are frustrated with having to deal with School Boards who are willfully turning a blind eye to the thousands of peer reviewed studies confirming the health effects from this unregulated technology that has never been tested for safety. Here is a story that needs to be told!

Janis Hoffmann, Victoria BC

Tyler is now 11 years old and has a recognized disability, EHS (electro hypersensitivity), which means with accumulative and prolonged exposure to microwave radiation from wireless technology, he experiences severe headaches, accompanied with vomiting, extreme fatigue, insomnia and now night terrors. For the past 4 years he has been shuffling between three different School Districts to avoid the mandatory exposure, which School Officials have decided, is ‘crucial’ to teach the curriculum.

Around April 2012, Tyler, who was then 7 years old and in Grade 2, started coming home with severe headaches that corresponded with increasing fatigue and sleeping difficulties. The first few times Tyler was asked to place his finger where it hurt and he would touch the top of his head. But later, as the headaches increasingly became worse to the point of nausea, Tyler was unable to touch the pain, stating it was in the middle of his head.

After many weeks of taking Advil and Tylenol to alleviate severe pain in his head, we knew something was seriously wrong. We were discussing the problem with some parents on the school ground and discovered a Wi-Fi router had been installed in the school just weeks before.

Tyler’s pediatrician requested that Tyler return to school with the Wi-Fi transmitter turned off so he could start a process of elimination to see if the Wi-Fi was giving Tyler the headaches. Our request to the first School District was denied. We were told they couldn’t turn the Wi-Fi off, even though they weren’t using it, because it would set a precedent. If they turned it off for us they would have to turn it off for everyone.

Tyler was unable to complete grade two with his friends and we were dismissed from the first School District.

For the next 4 years Tyler was moved around within Victoria and Saanich School District and he has now graduated into Middle School where we were assured that there was only 25% coverage. We were told he would be placed as far away from the Wi-Fi routers as possible so he could attend school with his friends.

On Friday Sept. 11, I received call to pick Tyler up because he had a severe headache. Tyler suffered through the long drive home and immediately went to bed to see if he could alleviate his pain. He started vomiting around 5:00 pm and his headache carried on until he finally fell asleep around 8:00 pm that evening. Throughout that time Tyler was given the recommended doses of Tylenol and Advil as per his doctor instructions but nothing seems to alleviate his pain.

These headaches are debilitating, excruciatingly painful and the longer he is exposed the more severe his headache, nausea, extreme fatigue and insomnia will be. Unfortunately with electro-hypersensitivity (EHS) avoidance is the only answer.

We were assured there was only 25% Wi-Fi coverage in Royal Oak School Middle School as per the policy 3120 where in fact the school has 100% coverage and able to download 30 laptops from a commercial Wi-Fi router three classrooms away. We were never informed about the Front Row Audio System emitting microwave radiation on another radio frequency and how the students were encouraged to use their cell phones in class. Now Tyler has suffered 8 injuries this year alone from the accumulative and prolonged exposure to the Microwave Radiation from two different frequencies.

As a temporary solution Tyler was pulled out of his homeroom and placed in a separate room downstairs. Tyler was really upset, frustrated and angry about being downstairs for 5 hours a day with no contact with any of his peers. He feels he was dumped downstairs and forgotten, left there to do his work on his own. He was frustrated that he can go a day or two with out even having anyone checking on him to see how he’s doing.

Imagine being 11 years old and your only social contact with your peer’s is in a school setting, but you are isolated in a room by yourself. Tyler really wants to be back in a classroom with his peers, to have the teacher in the room to actually teach him and to ask questions when help is needed like all other grade 6 students.

He has now lost contact with all his friends.

Tyler enters and exits the school as quickly as possible, keeping his head down to avoid eye contact in fear of being questioned about the situation. Tyler has expressed feelings of embarrassment, humiliation, loneliness, anxiety and is losing hope of ever finding a school where he can make friends. Tyler is a shy, gentle boy who just wants to be accepted by his friends and be a part of the school community, something he has yet to experience.

As part of the school experience students have an opportunity to meet socially and form friendships with others who have common interests. Tyler has a fundamental right to participate and socialize with his peer group and have the opportunity to build life skills that include communication, cooperation, and teammanship. These foundational components help to form a person into their adulthood and extend long beyond school years. Tyler has yet to experience a sense of connectedness and school community that is so crucial for his academic and adult life.

As of April 20th 2016, Tyler has been attending school for 1-½ hours on Wednesdays in the room downstairs with a teacher one on one. The rest of the week he is sitting at home when he should be participating in activities with his friends at school.

Tyler initially was so excited about attending Middle School this year only to have his expectations crushed. Every attempt to attend school has resulted in another painful injury from the microwave radiation that blankets the inside of the school. Tyler should be provided with reasonable accommodation, affording him inclusion and dignity while building his self-esteem and personal growth, but sadly he has only experienced the burden of isolation.

Tyler has the right to access public education in a safe learning environment free of known carcinogens, especially when safer hard-wired connections to the Internet already exist.

On June 22, 2016, our appeal to the Board of Trustees in the Saanich School District to turn off one Wi-Fi transmitter, the Front Row Audio System and set of policy of no “Cell Phone Use During School Hours” in one section of the school and no cost to the school, was denied and dismissed.

Canadian Teacher, Forced out by Wi-Fi, Goes on Warpath

Maria Plant, British Columbia teacher afflicted with electromagnetic hypersensitivity, has gone on the media warpath after years of rebuffs from government and school officials, scant media attention.

She is publicizing the validation of her illness by a Canadian Parliamentary committee in any way she can. Among those resisting her message is the BC Teachers Federation which will not publish her letter.

After years of a “media blackout” on the subject, articles have run in the Vancouver Sun and The Province, she notes, expressing the hope for more such articles.

Plant’s letter in its entirety is below.

To Len Webber, Vice Chair, Government of Canada’s House of Commons Standing Committee on Health (HESA):

Maria Plant

March 31, 2016

Hello Len Webber:

I am a very recently retired electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS) teacher from British Columbia.

I have avidly followed the HESA April 28th meeting minutes, and also read and eagerly circulated the outstanding June 2015 report to Parliament entitled “Radiofrequency Radiation and the Health of Canadians.”

In fact, I carry a paper copy of the April 2015 HESA minutes and the June 2015 Report in my purse at all times. I have HESA to thank for validating my illness and giving me credibility in my battle against WiFi and RF, because in BC there are no doctors trained to do thisI

I have now exhausted all my connections and contacts at this point. I have been trying in earnest for five years to appeal to the schoolboard, the 63 school superintendents in BC school districts, and other powers-that-be, to remove toxic WiFi from our schools. I have been restricted in the past by school policy and union protocol, but the restrictions are now lifted.

I am a “Canary” Spotlighting Danger

I am one of those canaries whom Dr. Riina Bray speaks of in the minutes of the April 28th meeting of HESA…I have extreme EHS. I was healthy and led a normal life until shortly after WiFi was installed at our school site in 2010. Formerly a Delta teacher for 25 years, I was forced onto Medical Leave this fall due to WiFI signals becoming intolerable, and my symptoms near WiFi was excruciatingly painful to endure.

I chose Early Retirement after my 55th birthday in December 2015, and retired just last month. I have way too much energy, enthusiasm, experience, and love for teaching to be retired. Sigh.

Today I am submitting to you a letter I wrote to the BC Teachers Federation in the fall of 2014. I hope it will add to the increasing evidence in support of your important report and message. The letter is in fact an article I had submitted to the BC Teachers Federation for publication in Teacher Magazine two years ago. They have not yet published the information – I am told this is due to the controversy it might stir.

Since I was recently left with no alternative, due to increasing WiFi sensitivity at school, but to retire from my school district in Delta, I am free to release this information to the public…so I will be contacting the media to publish the article instead.

Stop the “Insanity”

Several teachers in different BC locals as well as from other provinces in Canada are collaborating to contact our new Health Minister with information on WiFi health effects in an effort to stop the insanity!

The situation is out of control in our public schools right now, with the layering of multiple sources of radiation exposure from WiFi routers and boosters, laptops, iPads, and the hundreds (sometimes thousands) of strong iPhones actively in use daily in every public school.

In light of recent developments in the east, with two Ontario unions requesting that WiFi be removed from their schools due to teachers who are developing EHS symptoms and the subsequent lift of the media blackout here in the west (the Vancouver Sun and The Province covered the Ontario story after years of ignoring WiFI issues and Resolutions against its use here within the BCTF), it seems a fitting time to send my article to our local media, outlining my recent lengthy battle with the schoolboard regarding strong WiFi systems in our district.

My rapidly developing EHS symptoms and strong reactions to radiowave frequency radiation forced me out of my townhome and into early retirement on March 1st this year. We, the EHS, are being robbed of our rights and freedoms. I am now unable to participate in a formerly active, robust lifestyle, hike or jog in public parks, use transit, walk my dog on public sidewalks to run errands – all due to increased sensitivity to powerful EMF from powerlines, residential mobile phone use, home WiFi upgrades and boosters surging through neighbourhoods, and Smart Meter RF at street level. This is a basic Human Right to “clean air” that has been stolen from us.

Symptoms Emerged after Long Exposure

Due to sensitive skin, allergies and MCS (multiple chemical sensitivities), I am part of that growing group that is predisposed to become EHS. Symptoms began to emerge and develop only after lengthy and prolonged exposure to strong RF’s emitted by WiFi signals and routers in my classrooms and hallways. I have no RF in my own home, having never subscribed to home WiFi, mobile phone service, or Smart Meters.

I am not suffering alone – my experience is not unlike that of thousands of other teachers and students in public schools throughout BC and Canada.

Please use any connections you might have to help circulate this information, in order to effect change in federal policy on WiFi use in public spaces and places such as schools, parks, public transit including ferries, and buildings which are now toxic to the increasing number of Canadians who are EHS.